Leader

Government cuts to the Warm Up New Zealand insulation subsidy means it will now only be available for rental properties and could leave many elderly homeowners cold this winter, Opposition Leader Andrew Little says.

“In this year’s Budget the Government cut funding to the Warm Up programme from $100 million over three years to $18 million over two years. That means annual funding for the subsidy has fallen from $33 million to $9 million.

The response by state house tenants and social agencies to the Government’s rushed plan to shift families out of Auckland tells us what we already knew – this is no answer to the chronic housing shortage, Opposition Leader Andrew Little says.

John Key must explain why he was so misleading about eight homeless people turning down help from the Ministry of Social Development, Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little says.

“The Prime Minister is so out of touch on housing that he’ll say anything to deny there’s a crisis and even implying the homeless are there out of choice. His claims that Ministry officials accompanied the Salvation Army to visit these families living in their cars were simply wrong.

It is an utter tragedy that there are 41,705 people homeless in New Zealand and the Government must take urgent action to change the direction our country is heading in, Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little says.

“The number of homeless has soared by 25 per cent since 2006, according to new analysis released by Otago University today. One per cent of New Zealanders are now homeless.

Middle New Zealand has again missed out in this year’s Budget with not a single fix for the housing crisis, and health and education woefully underfunded again, Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little says.

“This Budget is just a patchwork of ad hocery, a piecemeal package of measures that won’t fix even one of the major problems facing New Zealand, including an out of control housing crisis which the Government wilfully denies. It lacks vision and shows that after eight years in power, National has lost touch.